A weekly show interviewing leaders in their fields, authors, renowned professors, inventors, innovators, change-makers and mavericks to inspire, educate and inform the business world and the curious. This Global show speaks of something greater beyond innovation, disruption and technology. It speaks to the human need to learn: how to adapt and love a changing world. It embraces the spirit of constant change, of staying receptive, of always learning. The show exists to enable people to be fully informed to lead better lives, lives packed with meaning.

We all want to discover our hidden talents and make an impact with them. But how? Our guest, an ex-footballer and performance specialist, quit his job and for six intense months lived with the world’s best athletes in an attempt to answer this question. Why have the best middle distance runners grown up in the same Ethiopian village? Why are the leading female golfers from South Korea? How did one athletic club in Kingston, Jamaica, succeed in producing so many world-class sprinters? He presents his surprising conclusions in seven lessons on how anyone – or any business, organisation or team – can defy the many misconceptions of high performance and learn to build their own gold mine of real talent.

This book is not about sport, it’s about identifying and nurturing talent. In a knowledge economy, talent is a competitive advantage, but bus8ness leaders and coaches alike don’t often know how to identify talent, even when it’s right in front of them.

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” —Aldous Huxley

Have you ever wondered what a profiling session would tell you about yourself?

Our guest helps some of the most successful people in the world to understand their behaviour and improve their performance. Here she guides you through the professional profiling assessment process in private, to help you discover your strengths, understand what really drives you and learn which environments will help you to excel.

Our behaviour is at the core of what we do. This is your ultimate self-awareness toolkit to help you understand both your own and other’s behaviour and to positively influence it. Along the way you may even start to sleep better, think more clearly and have good moods more often.

Weaving together philosophy, social science and neuroscience research, personal anecdotes and dialogues, A Child at Heart takes a radically different approach to the traditional boundaries between childhood and adulthood to reveal how rather than lapse into adulthood, we can achieve what the Greeks of old call arete—all-around excellence—when we look to children and youth as a lodestar for our development.

Childhood is our primary launching pad, a time of life when learning is more intense than at any other when we gain the critical knowledge and skills that can help ensure that we remain adaptable. This book weaves together the thinking of philosophers from across the ages who make the unsettling assertion that with the passage of time we are apt to shrink mentally, emotionally, and cognitively. If we follow what has become an all-too-common course, we denature our original nature—which brims with curiosity, empathy, reason, wonder, and a will to experiment and understand—and we regress, our sense of who we are will become fuzzier and everyone in our orbit will pay a price.

Mounting evidence shows that we begin our lives with a moral, intellectual, and creative bang, and in this groundbreaking, heavily researched, and highly engaging volume, today’s guest makes the provocative case that childhood isn’t merely a state of becoming, while adulthood is one of being, as if we’ve “arrived” and reached the summit. His life-changing proposition is that if we embrace the defining qualities of youth, we’re not destined to become frail, dispirited, or unhinged, we’ll grow in a way defined by wonder, curiosity, imaginativeness, playfulness, and compassion—in essence, unlimited potential.

We welcome the founder of Socrates Cafe, Maverick philosopher And Author of and the focus of today’s show “A Child at Heart: Unlocking Your Creativity, Curiosity, and Reason at Every Age and Stage of Life” – Christopher Phillips

Today’s guest shares some solutions. He has spent over 30 years working with leaders aligning their organisations to inspire individuals, teams, and hundreds, even thousands of people in various settings. He has captured his insights as an entrepreneur, speaker, author and film producer to share the powerful transformation that occurs when people share a common purpose. He has discovered that the key to real growth and profitability is purposeful leaders who build inspiring organisations and iconic brands. His mission is straightforward and clear: To provide people with the knowledge, skills and inspiration to perform at their best.

He is the author of the bestselling books, The Eagle’s Secret– Success Strategies for Thriving at Work and in Life, The Push – Unleashing the Power of Encouragement, My Sacred Journey Through Cancer.

His co-authored book, Be Your Own Brand, also a bestseller, is in its second edition and is now used by many business schools to address the importance of building a strong personal brand.

His latest book is “Mark of an Eagle—How Your Life Changes the World”, which was released last year. It is the third in the eagle trilogy.

Also, an award-winning producer, he has produced two highly praised, inspirational films, The Power of Purpose and If I Were Brave.

The focus for this episode is his bestseller “Even Eagles Need a Push: Learning to Soar in a Changing World”

As the forces of globalisation, automation, and artificial intelligence combine to disrupt every field and every career, having a good idea isn’t good enough. Mastering the ancient art of persuasion is the key to standing out, getting ahead, and achieving greatness in the modern world. Communication is no longer a “soft” skill—it is the human edge that will make you unstoppable, irresistible, and irreplaceable—earning you that perfect rating, that fifth star.

Carmine Gallo is the bestselling author of many titles including Talk Like TED, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, The Storytellers Secret and the focus of today’s show “Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great”

The key to success in sales and marketing often lies in the art of persuasion, but in a world of distractions, it can be challenging to capture the attention of your audience and tap into their decision-making process.

Today’s guest is the founder of SalesBrain, the world’s first Neuromarketing agency, built upon two decades of research on the effect of advertising and sales messages on the human brain to create a breakthrough persuasion strategy. Based on the latest research in neuroscience, media psychology and behavioural economics, today’s guest makes understanding the complex science of persuasion simple.

“The digital transformation is over. We live in an age where digital is the default setting. Anyone who is yet to transform is either obsolete or on the way there.” – Andy Swann

The modern world and old organizations are not compatible. Right now, we’re communicating, thinking, collaborating, sharing, working and playing in ways that couldn’t have been imagined two decades ago, yet somehow many of our businesses and the structures employed to operate them remain the same, carrying on in the way they always have. There are many reasons why this is completely unsustainable and we’re going to explore these as we journey through what makes a human workplace.

The human workplace is one that adapts, innovates fast, involves everyone, communicates, understands and acts in perpetuity. It creates relationships rather than transactions. People are emotional, responsive, individual. That’s what our organizations need to be, creating a story and telling it in their own way.

Philosophers, theologians, artists, and boy bands have waxed poetic about the nature of love for centuries.

But what does the brain have to say about the way we carry our hearts?

As technology advances to allow us a more focused examination of the intricate dance our brains do with our environment, we can use science to shed new light on humanity’s oldest question, “What is this thing called love?”

Today’s guest dived into the latest neuroscientific research concerning love and sex and what it really means for the way we approach our relationships.

Her bookThis Is Your Brain on Sex: The Science Behind the Search for Love/Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships asks age-old questions such as:

What parts of the brain are involved with love?

Is there really a “seven-year itch”?

Why do good girls like bad boys?

Is monogamy practical?

How thin is that line between love and hate?

Do mothers have a stronger bond with children than their fathers do?

How do our childhood experiences affect our emotional control and who is at risk for love addiction?

Researchers have found that the accelerated pace of modern office life is taking its toll on productivity, employee engagement, creativity and well-being. Faced with a relentless flood of information and distractions, our brains try to process everything at once increasing our stress, decreasing our effectiveness and negatively impacting our performance.

Ironically, we have become too overworked, unfocused, and busy to stop and ask ourselves the most important question: What can we do to break the cycle of being constantly under pressure, always-on, overloaded with information and in environments filled with distractions? Do we need to accept this as the new workplace reality and continue to survive rather than thrive in modern day work environments?

What if your organisation’s culture could be fuelled by creativity and productivity? It is possible to train the brain to respond differently to today’s constant pressures and distraction?

The secret to dealing with life’s interruptions is incredibly simple: Give each distraction just “one second’s” time, mindfully. Many companies turn to mindfulness to help their workers become more attentive and less distracted.

Today’s guest has worked with a multitude of fortune 500 countries in over 22 countries. He is the founder and managing director of the Potential Project and the focus of today’s show is his wonderful book “One Second Ahead”.

In the corporate world, we’re fast realizing that people are our largest source of competitive advantage. The problem is, all of our systems and structures are set up for products, services and technology to give us an edge over our rivals. But whether it’s recruitment, leadership, culture or high-performance, pro sports has been quality-testing people strategies for decades, and now contains a treasure trove of ideas for you to harness. Through in-depth interviews and meticulous research, Where Others Won’t dives deeper than ever before into professional sports from around the world.

We are joined by author of “Where Others Won’t: Taking People Innovation from the Locker Room Into the Boardroom”, Cody Royle

We can do more with our lives. We all know it, we all wish for it, but just how to do it—that eludes us. As one man describes his life, “In the morning I can’t wake up, in the day I am bored, in the evening I am tired, and at night I can’t sleep.” Even if we want to change, we’re not sure which path to take, and if we do find our way, we are usually too emotionally wounded, physically unhealthy, or mentally stressed to take the steps we know would transform our desperate life into a meaningful one.

Many of us long to change this troubled world, but the one thing we have the most influence over is the person looking back at us in the mirror every morning. We live in fear of terrorism, but in actuality, the most devastating terrorism comes from within as we continue to sabotage ourselves. A neglected body, chaotic mind, or wounded heart will prevent us from fulfilling our destiny as much as any outside enemy.

We all know that we deserve and are meant to live an inspired life that rises above mere existence, today’s guest shares some ways we can live the life we have always known we can live, a life with meaning, a life full of love, a life worth breathing.

We welcome global speaker, teacher, and author who acts as a bridge to connect people with their inner axis and thereby build better relationships with others, Max Strom

The world is full of leaders, from newly minted entrepreneurs to highly paid CEOs. There are nearly a quarter million CEOs in America alone. But according to a Gallup report, only one in ten people possess the talent that’s required of a CEO. If 90% of people lack innate management skills, how CEOs succeed?

CEOs can build incredible cultures, grow companies, and enhance the bottom line. But without the right guidance, they can just as easily burn out, cause cultures to stagnate, and lead their organisations to ruin.

Drawing from twenty-plus years of working side by side with today’s top leaders, Leadership expert and author of Finding Time to Lead, Leslie Peters pulls back the leadership curtain to reveal the shifts, practices, and tools that move leaders past the status quo.

We explore:

Why “having all the answers” ultimately sabotages success

How to recognise if busy-ness is, in fact, a sign of anxiety or discomfort

“There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times” – Voltaire

True or false? It’s rarely that simple.

This episode aims to equip us to spot misleading truths that are all around us and to communicate more effectively with friends & family.

There is more than one truth about most things. Eating meat is nutritious but it’s also damaging to the environment. The Internet disseminates knowledge but it also spreads hatred. When we communicate we naturally select the truths that are most helpful to our agenda.

We can select truths constructively to inspire organisations, encourage children, and drive progressive change. Or we can select truths that give a false impression of reality, misleading people without actually lying. Others can do the same, motivating or deceiving us with the truth. Truths are neutral but highly versatile tools that we can use for good or ill.

Today we will explore how truth is used and abused in politics, business, the media and everyday life. We will explore how a clearer understanding of truth’s many faces renders us better able to navigate our world and more influential within it.

We welcome strategic communications expert, master storyteller and author of “TRUTH How the Many Sides to Every Story Shape Our Reality”, Hector MacDonald

“Trust is not what we “do”—it is what results from what we do.” – Richard Fagerlin

Of the thousands of books published each year on leadership, management, self-help, and motivation, very few offer practical tools and solutions to the number one challenge in business: trust.

With trust, our relationships flourish, our productivity rises, and we have high personal and professional satisfaction. A trust-filled atmosphere lets people take risks, allowing innovation and creativity to thrive. Your team’s collective sense of self-worth and purpose becomes a beacon of light for others to follow. The healthy, dynamic atmosphere is contagious, and it raises the bar for your entire organisation. Higher productivity and lower turnover create a more profitable business. High trust is the currency of greatness.

We welcome founder and president of Peak Solutions, globally renowned speaker, consultant and author of Trustology Richard Fagerlin.

In this episode, we address questions like:

What is trust?

Is trust earned?

Who is responsible for trust?

How do you grow trust with others?

What does it mean to be trustworthy?

How can I lead my team to be a high-trust team?

How do I find out how much trust my team has now?

How can team members hold each other accountable for high-trust behaviour?

Any high-trust relationship involves at least two people, so there are always two things to think about regarding trust: Do you trust them? Do they trust you?

How do you build trust in your children?

The premise is that both are your responsibility.

A high-trust relationship requires that you trust the other person and that they trust you back.

The current way of treating people at work has failed. Globally, only 30% of employees are engaged in their jobs, and in this fast-paced world, that’s just not enough. The world’s best companies understand this and have been quietly treating people differently for nearly two decades.

Now you can learn their secrets and discover The Engagement Bridge™ model, proven to build bottom-line value for companies through sustainable employee engagement.

Debra Corey is the author of Effective HR Communication and the co-author of “The Rebel Playbook for Employee Engagement,” with the founder of Reward Gateway Glenn Elliott.

Gib Bulloch is an award-winning social intrapreneur who consults, writes and speaks on topics relating to the role of business in society.

Gib believes passionately in the power of business to change the world and in the power of the individual to change the world of business. Gib founded and scaled Accenture’s global “not-for-loss” consulting business, ADP.

He left Accenture in 2016 to explore new ways of supporting purpose-driven insurgencies within the corporate world.

Creative People Must Be Stopped: 6 Ways We Kill Innovation (Without Even Trying) with author David A. Owens, Professor for the Practice of Management and Innovation and Faculty Director, VU Accelerator-Summer Business Institute

Experience is the new battlefield. Satisfaction is not enough anymore. Customer experience is the main driver of future loyalty and will turn your customers into raving fans.

Our guest is Chief Xperience Officer (CXO) and Managing Partner at Solutions Unlimited. He is the author of the wonderful book Start Reverse.

In this must-listen chat, Andre tells us about the philosophy of starting in reverse, of flipping marketing on its head to become “customering”. Customering means starting with the customer every touchpoint of your brand.

Andre tells us this means empowering your people and including them as main vehicles to the customer.

We talk experience economy, in-store experience, business as theatre, leaders as directors and workers as cast members.

We chat about the purpose economy, including how we must have our own personal purpose to align with that of an organisation.

Psychologist, Speaker, Consultant and Author of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace and Sync or Swim Dr Paul White shares the keys to authentically and effectively communicating appreciation in the workplace.

n this eye-opening chat, we realise how we can improve our company by changing our language.

We look at the problems, there are a lot of them:

90% of American Companies have a recognition programme

Yet, most workers receive no recognition!

The No.1 reason people leave their jobs is not feeling appreciated

67% say more motivated by praise than anything else

Labour turnover is one of the significant causes of declining productivity and sagging morale

Visible costs to turnover:

Termination

Advertising

Recruitment

Candidate travel

Interviews

Assignment

Orientation

Relocation

More importantly, we explore the solutions with the 5 languages of appreciation:

Whitney Johnson is a CEO Advisor, Thinkers50 Management Thinker and author of ‘Dare, Dream, Do’, ‘Disrupt Yourself’ and ‘Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve’.

Only 33% of people in the USA and 15% Worldwide are engaged in the workplace. We discuss how great leaders can manage their people like a portfolio, they develop their people by enabling them to learn, leap and repeat.

We discuss how organisations can build an ecosystem where people will disrupt themselves in the short-term for the growth of the organisation in the long term.

In this great chat, we discuss some exemplars of personal and organisational disruption.

Whitney shares the principles of personal disruption which we can apply to ourselves to lead more exciting and meaningful careers and lives.

You can find out more about Whitney, her books and the “Disrupt Yourself” podcast at the following links:

We speak with Andrew Keen, the pioneer of calling into question the impact of technology and the resulting new business models on society.

He has been called a luddite and a technological Antichrist for calling out such concerns.

Today, no-one calls him that today.

He is the author of the fantastic books:

The Cult of the amateur

Digital Vertigo

The Internet is Not the Answer and the focus of our chat:

“How to Fix The Future”

Andrew’s book “How to Fix the Future” outlines a map of how we might approach the future of humanity amidst a world of ai, technology, algorithm and tech behemoths.

Andrew looks at how humanity has overcome huge change in the past and how we can use what we have learned in the past to fix the future.

We explore:

Legal regulation, where innovation and regulation are symbiotic. Andrew discusses some of the exemplars of regulation and how we can learn from them. We also discuss governments driving change such as Estonia, Singapore and even China.

Innovators and innovation diving change

The role of consumers and social responsibility, where consumers shape society with their needs.

Philanthropists, non-profits and committed change makers like Edward Snowden and you Andrew Keen!

Education and our roles as parents, teachers and educators of every kind.

Jill shares her new understanding of life, which has caused decades of anxiety and addictions to simply melt away.

We discuss this new understanding in the context of business and life, by understanding that we are not victims of other people and experiences, but we have been simply victims of thought allows us to liberate ourselves and become happier and more peaceful.

Don TapscottCEO, The Tapscott Group Inc.
Founder and Executive Chairman, Blockchain Research Institute

Founder Carbon X

Don is a leading Global authority on the impact of technology on business and society. He has authored over 15 books, including Wikinomics, The Digital Economy, Digital Capital, Growing up Digital, the Naked Corporation, Radical Openness and Blockchain Revolution

We talk a little about Don and his ethos and how he has overcome adversity to change over the years,

We talk about his phenomenal 2008 “Wikinomics – Mass Collaboration”

Don tells us how technology changes the way society functions and how collaboration is an engine of the new economy.

Are you operating in a toxic workplace? Is your boss a narcissist? Do you have a black walnut tree in your midst? Is it worth risking your health for financial gain? Do you know what to do?
We are joined by Dr. Paul White, psychologist, speaker, consultant and author whose passion is “making work relationships work.” For over 20 years, he has assisted businesses, government agencies, schools and non-profit agencies. Paul talks to us about the challenges of a toxic workplace and how we can deal with it.

On this episode, we talk about how to get the boss to buy into new ideas.
Jim Detert is a Global expert in this field. Organizations do not prosper unless middle managers have the confidence to identify and champion change. Getting buy-in is key.

Jim identifies the problems faced by so many corporate innovators, intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs in residence.

He then discusses his frameworks on how to circumnavigate so many blockers to enable much-needed change and innovation.

We also discuss how leaders can create the conditions for such recommendations to be made from simple changes in where ideation happens to how they mingle with their teams.

Check out some excellent articles by Jim and his research partners Ethan Burris and Susan Ashford:
https://hbr.org/2015/01/get-the-boss-to-buy-in
https://hbr.org/2016/01/can-your-employees-really-speak-freely

What other ways could people have escaped from the Titanic?
How can we unlock talent in gifted people who are framed as less?
We explore how we can be “fixed” in our mindsets and how there are techniques to unlock their thinking. We discuss a new kind of school and approach with Eagle Hill School. We discuss how AI and humanity can co-operate for even better results than working separately.

Harvard Business Review magazine article: Find Innovation Where You Least Expect It
https://hbr.org/2015/12/find-innovation-where-you-least-expect-it

Lukas tells us of his journey and how he had the radar on for an innovation. He discusses his mindset and how he made it all happen. http://www.coindrum.com/

Founder of Cubii Shivani Jain joins us to tell us how Cubii can help us. She tells us how ignorance can be an advantage when starting out and how her co-founders and her benefitted from the maker community and the help of others to forge Cubii.

For years, we’ve been told how ‘sitting is the new smoking’ and that prolonged sitting can increase your risk for cardiovascular disease, varicose veins and high blood pressure and cholesterol.

On this week’s innovation show, we talk to founder and pioneer of Holacracy® Brian J. Robertson.

Corporate structures are broken and rely on managerial hierarchies and organizational structures developed for the 19th and 20th century.
Holacracy is a revolutionary self-management practice used by companies, like Zappos, Precision Nutrition and the David Allen Company and developed for the way business is done today.

Brian is an experienced entrepreneur, organizational pioneer, and author of the book Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World. He is most well-known for his work developing Holacracy, a self-management practice for running purpose-driven, responsive companies. Brian currently works as a business partner at HolacracyOne, the organization he launched to steward the Holacracy practice and assist other organizations seeking to adopt it. Holacracy has been adopted by over 1,000 companies around the world to date.

We talk about his background, why he pioneered Holacracy, who thrives in this system and how you can get started.

On this week’s innovation show we shine a light on the lack of gender balance in the workplace. Bringing balanced thinking into the workplace means different thinking, in a world craving different thinking.

Representing 100% of your customers inevitably leads to innovation and breakthroughs, yet half the population is often underserved or misunderstood.

In parallel, 60% of today’s global graduating classes female, yet they are entering workplaces designed for their fathers.

This is not a case of fairness, when 60% of the talent and 80% of the market is female, this is no longer a diversity dimension, it’s the future!

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is CEO of the leading gender consultancy, 20-first, and a world authority on leadership, gender and business.
Avivah suggests we stop Fixing the Women, and start adapting the workplace to 21st-century talent and markets.
That’s where innovation lies. Right here, right now. Not on the other side of the world, or in Silicon Valley’s latest app. But sitting right there, on the other side of the kitchen table.

You can find out more about Avivah, her consulting and keynotes here: http://20-first.com/

The article we mention on HBR: https://hbr.org/2017/10/if-you-cant-find-a-spouse-who-supports-your-career-stay-single

The IAT test I mention: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatest.html

On this week’s show, we talk to musician Peter Himmelman, author of the best-selling “Let Me Out”, a book which aims to liberate creativity and potential in individuals and organisations.

Peter Himmelman is an American singer-songwriter and film and television composer from Minnesota, who formerly played in the Minneapolis indie rock band Sussman Lawrence before pursuing an extensive solo career. Peter is also the founder of Big Muse, a company which helps individuals and organizations unlock their creative potential.

Peter is also the author of the best-selling “Let Me Out”, a book which aims to liberate creativity and potential in individuals and organisations.

On this week’s show we talk about the tools that can unleash potential, about the way corporations shackle their talent and how we as individuals can take control of their lives to release their potential.

You can find out more about Peter here: http://www.peterhimmelman.com/home.php and here: http://www.bigmuse.com/
You can find his book here: http://a.co/akxm8VO and here: www.letmeoutbook.com/buy
You can find his albums here: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/artist/peter-himmelman/id910855

“For those seeking inventive ways to awaken their own sleeping muses, Let Me Out delivers as promised.” – Publisher’s Weekly

We fear rejection, we care what others think, we fear failure, what if we did not?
Imagine the possibilities, maybe we would be in a job we actually like, maybe we would have written a best-selling novel, maybe we would have written Harry Potter. What is worse, our education and often our parenting teaches kids to fear failure and to fear exploration. As we discuss on the show some kids are fearful of “going outside the lines” and this continues in life.

We learn how comedian Chris Rock uses a fail fast method to win over his audiences. We learn how to use a “happiness map” and we learn lessons from pottery class.

Ryan Babineaux is author of ‘Fail Fast, Fail often’. He is CEO and founder of Happenstance Counseling http://www.happenstancecounseling.com/

Ryan is leading a Stanford research project that examines the work practices of masters in diverse fields—beer making, journalism, social entrepreneurship, engineering, long-distance running, mathematics, etc.He earned his M.Ed. in psychology and human development from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University.